Tamil Nadu CM Edappadi K Palaniswami, proxy of AIADMK chief VK Sasikal, will seek a trust vote in the assembly on Saturday. DMK is ready with 89 party legistators to vote against E Palanisami to decide whether he will remain in charge, said MK MK Stalin, his main opposition. The floor test in the Assembly will be the first such exercise the state will witness in about 30 years. Read More

UP elections 2017: Priyanka Gandhi takes on PM Modi – state has its own youth, why does it need an ‘outsider’?

Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi finally came to the fore on Friday, attacking Prime Minister Modi at an election rally in Rae Bareli questioning PM Modi’s claims that the state of Uttar Pradesh has ‘adopted’ him, adding that there was no dearth of youth in that state for an outsider to help develop it. Throwing her weight behind the Congress’ longstanding pitch for youth empowerment, Priyanka said, “Every youth in Uttar Pradesh has the potential to be a leader. They will contribute to the state’s development.” Read

In a blow to Vijay Mallya, ED gets court’s nod to invoke MLAT to bring him back

A special court in Mumbai has allowed the Enforcement Directorate to invoke the India-UK Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT) to bring back embattled liquor baron Vijay Mallya to the country to face money laundering probe. The special court, which is entrusted with hearing cases under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, had last week approved the Enforcement Directorate’s request to issue an order against Mallya under the India-UK treaty. Read full story

President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Thursday, Feb. 16, 2017. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

Donald Trump’s administration is considering mobilising as many as 100,000 National Guard troops to round up unauthorised immigrants, it has been reported. The 11-page document calls for the unprecedented militarization of immigration enforcement as far north as Portland, Oregon, and as far east as New Orleans, Louisiana. Requests to the White House and the Department of Homeland Security for comment and a status report on the proposal were not answered. Read more

Ahead of strategic dialogue between India and China, Beijing on Friday continued to dispel the view that it was against India’s entry into the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) and reiterated that “this is a multilateral issue”. Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar and China’s Executive Vice Foreign Minister Zhang Yesui will hold a new round of strategic dialogue in Beijing on Wednesday. Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Geng Shuang said, “We stick to two-step approach namely, first NSG members need to arrive at a set of principles for the entry of non-NPT state parties into NSG and then move forward discussions of specific cases,” Geng said. Read